Discussion

Nectar last night....

Just wanted to give impressions of meal and experience at Nectar last evening. Had incredible experience with a couple of duds. We started off with Sushi Bento for two, which was basic and well prepared. Shrimp roll, crab roll, spicy tuna, and tuna and salmon nigiri. All fresh all good. Next on the agenda was the calamari and edamame dish. This was freakin' amazing! In past experiences the food had come to us after hanging out for a bit and was not piping hot. Last night the calamari was perfectly fried w a corn starch batter, very light and crisp. Adjacent was a bowl of fried edamame with fried shallots and pepper slices. Two dipping sauces of mango and one of hoisin based. Top notch awesomeness....The next part was disappointing. We ordered the lobster sliders and pork dumplings. Both of these couldn't have been more pedestrian and average. The lobster sliders came as three, were not filled with lobster salad, instead the ratio of lobster to mini buttered bun was off. More bun than anything. The pork dumplings were dense and un-juicy. The sauce they were served with was cold, sweet pear sauce that was unappealing and did nothing to elevate the so-so pork dumplings.After that we were confused and didn't know what to do so we decided to look around and found wild boar, Chinese sausage and scallions noodle dish. This I can say was the best preparation I have ever had in any kind of restaurant inside or outside the pantheon of authentic or fusiony Asian food. It was sublime the interplay between the smokey boar and sweet spicy sausage, the sauce and the bites of greens. Far and away the best thing i've eaten in a long time.Our desert was the legendary mini-donuts w three sauces that did not let us down.

All in all we will be back it was great with a couple of duds. We highly recommend Nectar and in the future we will get some more specials which they had many and we ignored for some reason. The menu is large and I think I got a case of let's try a bunch of stuff syndrome.

So!! You've found "my" place! And not only that, but you ventured out on a Saturday night when it is mobbed, noisy, music way too loud with thumping bass sounds, and service busy -- and it still passed with flying colors. (must have been the cold weather!) Anyway, I simply love this place and frequent it with regularity. You had my dish too, minus the meats and with bean sprouts & scallions in attendance instead. There is so much of it that I actually have a lunch at home with it next day. I agree with you, it is far and away the best lo mein dish I have ever tasted in any Asian restaurant. I also usually get the vegetarian spring rolls which are delish. Sometimes a side of edamame plain. To top it off, they make the best mixed drinks and martinis around.I go early and rarely on a weekend night. Service is always splendid. Love this place. Shhhhhh!

Just moved to the area from San Francisco and heard about Nectar. Had dinner there recently with my wife and I'd agree with Lex's assessment. Some great dishes, and some so so meals. It is a rather varying assortment of items from Sushi to meats. We started with the edamame but w/o the calamari. It was a unique and incredible twist on any edamame we've ever had, it was great. Moved onto a few rolls and sashimi. I would say these were good (not great), fresh (but not super melt in your mouth fresh), and EXPENSIVE, for what they were. Even by SF standards. They we took a 90 degree turn and ordered the rib eye. This was absolutely fantastic. Perfectly grilled to a med. rare, extremely flavorful and super tender. The potatoes au gratin were limited in flavor and just OK. Wine selection by the glass was fairly limited, but they had a few nice CA Pinot's and blends that went well w/ our meal. The pours are around 5 oz I believe and priced somewhere around $10. The last glass we had was probably corked, but could not find the waiter to mention it, but not the worst thing. Wait staff was very good. Looked a lot like a business person on expense account crowd the night we were there. I'd recommend it as there seems to be a limited number of this type of restaurant in the area.

You've really captured the "flavor" of Nectar.When you weigh it against San Francisco, I would say it favors pretty well. Now if we could only get a dim sum like Yank Sing, I'd say we've got something!!

Agreed. Nectar would hold its own in SF. Yank Sing was our go to for Chinese food in general in addition to dim sum. Oddly enough, great Chinese, Italian and fresh grilled fish are hard to find in SF. With fried rice and cold sesame noodles as the base line gauge, I could not find anything to compare to about 80% of all Chinese restaurants in NYC. Good to be back in the land of proper bagels, cold cuts, and scrapple!!

No, I had not. You've got one on me. : ) That is in a part of the city that is impossible to park and hence we pretty much never went there. Although there were a few really good small restaurants on that stretch of Hyde St. a good sushi rest., a pretty good fish restaurant and a few Mediterranean/Italian joints. Very romantic w/ the cable cars rolling by.